Preview: Victoria at Prince George, Friday Feb 24th

Jamie Crooks tries to stuff the puck past Drew Owsley

The Victoria Royals (18-36-2-4, 42 pts), visit the Prince George Cougars (19-38-0-2, 40pts) for the first of a two game set Friday night.  Pregame show on The Zone @ 91.3 FM starts at 6:45pm.

STANDINGS:  Victoria is tied for 7th with Seattle, 1 up on Everett and 2 ahead of the 10th place Cougars.  Victoria has played one more game than all 3 clubs, and 2 points separates the 4 teams.

SERIES: It’s the final two meetings of the season, the Royals with a 4-2 record thus far, splitting their last encounter with a 3-1 loss last Saturday, winning the previous night 4-2 in Victoria.


Prince George 3 @ Victoria 1 (Feb 18 2012)
Prince George 2 @ Victoria 4 (Feb 17 2012)
Prince George 1 @ Victoria 5 (Feb 1 2012)
Prince George 4 @ Victoria 2 (Jan 31 2012)
Victoria 6 @ Prince George 5 (Oct 1 2011)
Victoria 5 @ Prince George 4 (Sep 30 2011) SO

LAST GAME:  The Royals are coming off a 6-3 loss to the Blazers in Kamloops Wednesday.  Victoria held the lead twice but the Kamloops power play struck 4 times and scored 4 unanswered for the win.  Prince George dropped a pair of road games in Portland Monday and Tuesday by scores of 7-2 and 8-1 respectively.

#1 Jared Rathjen stops a shot in Kamloops Wednesday. Credit: Kelvin Harrison

HOME & AWAY:  Victoria wraps up a 3 game road swing after Saturday night's tilt in Prince George.  The Cougars begin an 8 game home stand, with a 10 under .500 record in PG.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: The Royals power play has scored in three straight, going 5 / 13 = 38.46%, improving to 11th in the league.  They’ve scored the 12th most goals for overall, 6 short handed.

The Cougars have scored the fewest goals in the league, with the fewest shots for.  They have the 22nd ranked power play and have taken the 5th most penalty minutes per game on average.

DRAFTED/NHL SIGNED PLAYERS: For Victoria: D Tyler Stahl (Carolina, 6th rd 2010), and D Jordan Fransoo (Ottawa, 7th rd 2011).  For Prince George: D Ricard Blidstrand (7th PHI ’10).

TOP PROSPECTS:  Central Scoutings mid-term rankings of North American players positions Victoria’s Steven Hodges (55), and Logan Nelson (108).  For PG: Troy Bourke (107).

INJ:
Victoria:
#3, Zach Habscheid, Lower body, 1 month+

Prince George:
#3, Marc McNulty, Upper body, day to day
#21, Shane Pilling, Upper body, day to day
#23, Austin Daae, Upper body, day to day
#27, Alex Forsberg, Lower body, day to day

REMAINING GAMES:
Victoria:  Home Games (6), Away (6)
Opposition: Prince George x 2, Everett x 2, Vancouver x 3, Spokane x 2, Kelowna x 1, Portland x 2,

LEADING SCORERS:

Crooks (32-30-62)
Nelson (21-33-54)
Soudek (22-28-50)
Rintoul (14-31-45)
Magee (20-23-43)

Bourke (12-30-42)
Carlson (8-26-34)
Forsberg (12-19-31)
Asuchak (15-14-29)
Fraser (14-11-25)